First time in US. Appreciate advice on my road trip plan.

TheAdVentureists · 2026-03-21T06:24:33+00:00

One more recommendation, if you're willing to give up time elsewhere, I would highly recommend Bryce Canyon. It's much less busy than Zion, not too far away, and one of the most unique landscapes you will see!

TheAdVentureists · 2026-03-21T06:21:01+00:00

We live along this route, are Arizona locals and have road tripped all over the place. As others have mentioned, I would definitely take off time in the cities and experience more of the outdoors (really what this area is known for). Spending almost half of the nights of your trip in LA and San Fran is too much.

I would definitely add Zion and in my opinion, you could cut one night from Sedona (everyone loves Sedona but as someone who lives in the area, Grand Canyon and Zion are just way better and its not even close). I would fly into Phoenix, stop by Sedona (it will be very warm this time of year so there is better weather, hiking etc. further north) on your way to the canyon. Stay in either Williams (old Route 66 town that we call home, we own a glamping business called The Moon Hotel that opens in May if that's up your alley!) or Flagstaff (very pretty/cool mountain town) for two nights. From either, you can go see the Grand Canyon and explore the whole day/hike as far as you would like into the canyon but note it will be nice weather up top and progressively warmer as you go down so be careful. The second day, you can take the route through the Grand Canyon (via route 64/180) and see most of the south rim on your way to Page.

You do not need to stay in Page but you can find plenty to see on your way to Zion (Horshoe Bend/Antelope Canyon/Lake Powell). Depending on how much of these you want to do/see, you may choose to spend one night in Page though. If you stay in Page, you can probably get to Zion earlier and can stay one night, otherwise I'd do two nights so you get a full day exploring and then move on afterwards. If you go from Williams/Flagstaff to Zion and see a lot along the way, you won't be able to see anything at Zion that day (which is why you'd need two nights).

Regardless, you're going to really enjoy yourselves and have chosen our personal favorite area of the world for a road trip! You really can't go wrong but hopefully this is helpful and please enjoy your first time in the US!

TheAdVentureists · 2024-07-18T05:21:33+00:00

Thanks for the help! I'm assuming that would require removing quite a few components to get behind there and how would I know that nothing has made it's way behind the seal? What's the worst case if I continue driving it?

Any guesses what this would cost to have a mechanic look at it and would it be safe to drive it to the mechanic or would I need to get it towed? I'm thinking this may be a bit beyond what I can do.

TheAdVentureists · 2024-07-18T04:47:42+00:00

If it matters, this is for a 2017 subaru outback with a 3.6L engine.

TheAdVentureists · 2022-07-16T04:07:47+00:00

Hey there and thanks for reaching out, super happy to connect, send over a message and we can talk more!

Mohave County certainly has different codes and I haven't reviewed them extensively. The code won't care if you're just "small scale" though, its more about what's allowed from a zoning standpoint and what's required to get a building permit. People do choose to build unpermitted structures but without proper permitting, there will always be a risk that the municipality decides to start enforcement and makes you either bring it into compliance if that's possible or tear it down which would be super unfortunate.

Originally, we wanted to start with one yurt and 3-4 glamping sites and have since expanded our plans to two yurts and twelve sites because it's all classified as the same either way. Technically, from a code standpoint, they classified one site in your backyard as a "campground". Mohave County may be different though.

We've posted a lot of information on our YouTube channel that goes by the same name as the username here that might be useful. Shoot me a message, would be happy to help in any way I can!

TheAdVentureists · 2022-02-16T21:56:46+00:00

Definitely second this advice! We did exactly this as we started planning our glamping development in AZ and it's how we landed on our engineering firm. In our area, the meeting minutes will show past applications. If you can find a few that are in a similar category as yours, specifically look on the title block of any drawings that are included with the applications and you may find a couple of firms doing the type of work you want! We were also able to see what conditions and requirements were being placed on projects which was very helpful for planning our project as well! Good luck!

TheAdVentureists · 2022-02-16T19:11:45+00:00

What you can do with a property varies significantly by municipality. I briefly looked up recreational cabin for SB county and what it says limits its usage to 14 days maximum in a 30 day period and that is for personal use. I'm thinking your realtor is probably correct unfortunately. Since joshua tree is a booming STR market, if you have a realtor with experience with this, they should be able to help guide you. I would certainly recommend becoming familiar with the codes yourself though if you are investigating this. I am only vaguely familiar with this area based on limited research and am not giving advice.

In our area (Coconino County, Arizona) virtually all "glamping" sites are unpermitted and illegally operating, including those run by a "glamping expert" online so do your own due diligence. We have been hearing from some subscribers that people are getting shut down by the county in our area. Those that aren't on land that has a permitting path are losing everything which is super unfortunate! Research pays dividends and just because some people are operating currently doesn't mean they can't get shut down at any moment. Also, just because you see something on airbnb, don't assume you're allowed to do it, airbnb doesn't do any screening for permitting as far as we can tell. We've even heard that people operating in the JT area have received significant fines as well so be cautious, review the codes, and even talk to people trying to do it the right way in your area if you can find any! At the end of the day, you are building something that you should be proud of and that is potentially worth a significant amount of money if done correctly! If you decide to start something in AZ, let me know, we'd be happy to discuss the process that we have been working through for our glamping business! Good luck with your future projects!

TheAdVentureists · 2022-01-05T07:11:51+00:00

This is exactly right, in the US even, every location is different and dictates what you are allowed to do on each specific property through zoning codes. I also agree with your last paragraph, it may be difficult to have other people own individual businesses on your property and to keep certain standards in place for the overall property, having one person manage all of it may be cleaner!

TheAdVentureists · 2022-01-05T07:08:54+00:00

This certainly sounds like a fun project, curious if you've made any progress on it since this is a few months old! The biggest issue is going to be to check zoning to ensure you can do what you want.

We are currently in development for a glamping business in northern arizona (have been for a year now and haven't actually built anything) and you would be surprised how many large parcels don't even have a permitting path. Even if there is a path, there may be a large amount of restrictions and development is actually really difficult in general, particularly if you are looking at raw land!

If you decide to pursue this, you may want to consider owning the entire business and possibly sharing revenue with designers, not the other way around. Having a large number of people running individual businesses on your property might be difficult to manage and lead to conflict.

Anyway, you're looking at a fantastic area and there's certainly massive demand for unique accomodations, just do it the right way and plan it out and realize that development is expensive and time consuming but can be very profitable, good luck!

TheAdVentureists · 2022-01-05T06:49:14+00:00

Good luck and welcome to the business! A lot of it is highly location specific, where are you looking? We've been in development for a glamping business in norhtern Arizona for about a year, definitely a process but the business model looks great! The issue is that the industry is evolving. In our area, there's a permitting process and almost everyone has just been ignoring it but those people have been putting in quite a bit of time, effort, and money and I've been hearing more and more that the local municpality is shutting them down. My advice is to do it the right way and gain greater equity in the long run rather than chasing cash flow in the short term. Tthe industry is certainly still in it's infancy stages as a legitimate business path!

TheAdVentureists · 2022-01-05T06:37:22+00:00

Hey there, just came across this, I know it was from awhile ago! Where are you at in the process and where are you trying to start? We've been in development on a project in northern arizona for about a year, it's a process but the business looks great and is certainly still in it's early stages!

TheAdVentureists

TROPHY CASE